Mental Health and Substance Abuse Minister Leesa Vlahos has had no contact with Premier Jay Weatherill since release of Oakden report

EMBATTLED Mental Health Minister Leesa Vlahos has had no contract with Premier Jay Weatherill since release of the damning Oakden report, as calls mount for her to resign.

Minister Leesa Vlahos in a press conference at Parliament House. Picture: Picture: Tricia Watkinson.

• Minister under pressure to resign
• Millions spent on travel as patients suffered
• Report is a catalog of horrors
• Ministers claim they were unaware

EMBATTLED Mental Health and Substance Abuse Minister Leesa Vlahos has had no contract with Premier Jay Weatherill since release of the damning Oakden report, as calls mount for her to resign.

Ms Vlahos on Saturday held a press conference to defend her handling of long-running issues at the site, as it emerged concerns over staffing were raised with her and dismissed two years ago.

Both Mr Weatherill and Health Minister Jack Snelling are currently on leave. Ms Vlahos said she had not spoken to Mr Weatherill directly since last week, but insisted she retained his confidence and that she had “nothing to hide and nothing to fear”.

“I am unaware of what the Premier has read recently. I do not control his black box every night,” Ms Vlahos said.

“He is on leave. I’ve spoken to the Premier about this matter in the past.

“No, I haven’t spoken to him since Thursday. I’m sure I have his full support in this matter.

“His staff are well aware of what is going on with this issue. “My colleagues have not abandoned me. I’m receiving strong support from my parliamentary colleagues and my ministerial colleagues.”

Ms Vlahos said it was possible even more Oakden staff would be sanctioned, on top of the eight already stood down, 21 referred to a national regulator and three matters taken up by police.

Asked if ministers over the past 15 years of the Labor State Government bore responsibility for the toxic culture at Oakden, Ms Vlahos said she had issued an unconditional apology.

“When I became aware that there was abuse claims going on at the Oakden site I triggered the independent review that the Chief Psychiatrist has delivered to us,” she said.

“People secretly sought to hide their poor performance from people and management.

“We are making no apologies for improving the standards on that site. “We have a way forward.

“This is a serious matter, and we are acting. “I will not be bullied and harassed into resigning.

“I have been transparent all the way through. I have nothing to hide and nothing to fear.”

Ms Vlahos said she was certain her predecessors in the portfolio would have called a similar inquiry had they been made aware of serious allegations of abuse against residents at Oakden.

“Since I became aware of it, we’ve put in a number of clinical leadership changes and made sure they have has several lots of extensive training,” Ms Vlahos said. “There is much greater oversight.

Ms Vlahos said anyone with fresh complaints or allegations should contact a Government hotline.

Ms Vlahos also defended a three month delay between clinicians’ representatives urging her to visit the site in November last year and her eventual tour, which took place in February.

Opposition Leader Steven Marshall said that “this government has known about the problems and this minister has known about the problems at Oakden for an extended period of time”.

“She’s known about the problems at Oakden for an extended period of time, and she’s done nothing,” he said. “She must resign today. If she doesn’t, Jay Weatherill needs to cut short his family holiday, come back, read the report and sack Leesa Vlahos.”

South Australian senator Nick Xenophon, meanwhile, says a new Commonwealth-funded facility to care for the state’s most vulnerable elderly residents must be established in the wake of the Oakden scandal.

Mr Xenophon will lobby for a new mental health home in Adelaide to care for the 50 residents who will be displaced by the closure of the Oakden Older Persons Mental Health Service.

“I will be seeking commonwealth funding for a new dedicated facility rather than these people being shunted to inappropriate facilities and that is a risk,” Mr Xenophon said.

“We need a facility that is properly run, that is compassionate and that does the right thing by these people, because putting them in inappropriate facilities could also put them and others at risk.”